I Need to Know
by pinkbelle
Summary: Set one week after Mona's arrest. Toby and Caleb know that they haven't got all the answers they need from the girls, but in an attempt to get them they discover something they never expected. Spoby/Haleb & Aria and Emily


**Hey guys(: Okay, I PROMISE I'm going to update Safe and Sound soon for those of you waiting on the new chapter! I'm having a little bit of writer's block, but it will be updated sooner rather than later, promise! In the mean time, here's a one-shot I've had on my computer for a while know. It's set about a week after Mona was caught, and because I think Caleb and Toby should just have a bromance going on already in this they do so I'm ****not explaining friendships or anything. Enjoy, and please R&R!**

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Toby eased open the door to the Hasting's house and slid through the small opening, shutting the door after Caleb had followed him through. He fumbled his way along to the light switch on the wall, flicking them on. Just before Toby could head up the stairs to Spencer's room, their destination, Caleb grabbed his arm.

"Hey, are you _sure_ there's no chance someone's going to walk in on us?" he asked, an uneasy look on his face. "I know Spencer's at her lake house with the others, but what about her parents or her sister?"

Toby laughed bitterly. "Her parents don't come home often, they spend more time with Melissa in Philly than they do with Spencer. They came home the day after Mona was arrested and left later that afternoon after checking Spencer wasn't dead and there was no way she was going to be incriminated for anything." A dark look came into his eyes, hatred for Spencer's parents flashing through them. "The term 'favorite child' doesn't even begin to cover the way this family works."

Without another word Toby walked quickly and quietly up the stairs, Caleb following behind him, and once he reached the second floor he gently pushed open Spencer's door. He felt a smile come onto his face as he inhaled the smell of his girlfriend's perfume and body spray, mixed in with the clean and sweet smell that was Spencer. Caleb's discomfort at breaking into Hanna's best friend's house began to show more clearly, and when Toby turned on the main light and looked back at him, he placed a hand on Caleb's shoulder.

"Caleb, relax, no one's going to catch us."

Caleb shook his head. "It's not that – trust me, I've had my fair share of being busted for breaking and entering." He took a deep breath, looking around the room and then back at the boy in front of him. "It's just that…doesn't it feel wrong, invading their privacy like this? I mean, Spencer is _your_ girlfriend – are you seriously okay with going through her room when she's not here?"

Toby hesitated, then let out a sigh. "No, of course I'm not – this is the last thing I want to be doing, breaking her trust like this. But aren't you sick of the half-explanations we've been getting? I mean, they're a step above what I was getting before Mona was caught, I don't know about you…"

Caleb nodded. "I wasn't getting anything then either." He laughed. "In fact, I was somehow convinced to break into a phone they gave me, convinced they'd stolen it, only to find a video taken of Melissa, Garrett, Ian and Jenna just before Alison was murdered, and I still wasn't given a reason for why it was so important!"

"Then do you get why it's so important we find out what they're not telling us? They were being harassed for a year, and even though we were dating two of them we still had no idea about it. The only reason I found out what was going on was because of the way Doctor Sullivan just disappeared. If I hadn't done that?' A shudder ran through Toby. "Who knows what could have happened."

The two boys stood in silence for a moment in the middle of Spencer's room, before Caleb turned to Toby.

"Okay, where are we starting?"

Toby moved over to Spencer's desk, pausing when he saw her laptop there. Going through her room was one thing, but her laptop? As if Caleb could read his mind, the other boy spoke from his position in front of the open doors of Spencer's closet, just about to search through it.

"If I was a teenage girl with a sister I thought could have killed one of my friends and parents who were convinced I was setting up my brother-in-law, I wouldn't keep anything lying around. I'd keep it all stored on my computer where no one could get to it." Caleb walked over to the desk, pulling the chair out and sitting down. "No one, that is, except for me." Opening the lid, he began to hack Spencer's laptop. Toby moved away to her bedside table, kneeling in front of it and opening the top drawer. He smiled when he saw the picture of him and Spencer, taken a few days before by Emily after he had pulled Spencer onto his lap while he was sitting on his motor cycle, sitting on top in a frame. Turning his focus back to the open drawer in front of him, he moved aside the numerous novels and books to see the entire contents of the drawer. By the time he had repeated this step with all three drawers on both bedside tables, Caleb had finally cracked Spencer's password.

"Damn, Cavanaugh, your girl really doesn't want people getting into this." Caleb sounded impressed, but Toby brushed the comment off – Spencer was a Hastings, she never did things halfway. If she was going to bother password-protecting her laptop, she was going to make it difficult for anyone to bypass that. He moved over to Caleb who got up and let Toby sit down, knowing that it was one thing to crack someone's password but another to go through their documents. Spencer was Toby's girlfriend, and it was his place to do that – if the situation were reversed, which he knew it may well be soon if they didn't find anything at Spencer's – he wouldn't want anyone else going through Hanna's files.

Toby pulled Spencer's laptop to him, opening the folder containing all of her documents. He scrolled through page after page of folders entitled things like 'Russian History: Semester 1' and 'AP Latin', when he finally came to one that was untitled. Double-clicking on it, he felt his eyes widen as he saw the contents of it. Everything was sorted into folders, one labelled 'Motives', which contained a document each on Melissa, Garrett, Jenna, Ian and Jason; however, it was the one called 'Texts' that Toby chose to focus on. Instead of finding all of the texts Spencer had finally told him Mona had been sending them, there were two sub-folders within it: one called 'Mona', and once that simply held a '?' as the name. He opened the one with the question mark, and soon enough saw why it was called what it was. Spencer had inserted a label – 'Texts sent by unknown A'. Toby felt his blood run cold and he double-clicked on the only file in the folder – a document containing text after text to the girls from A. Underneath each individual text Spencer had written an explanation of why she believed it wasn't Mona – 'Mona with Hanna when text was sent', 'Mona out of town on school trip when text sent'. The texts themselves looked like normal A texts, but then Toby began to notice that all of the texts were for Spencer – they were about Toby, cheating on some paper, and he mentally winced when he read the ones concerning her affair with Wren. He frowned, about to turn and Caleb had found anything in Spencer's closet, when he heard the front door open. Caleb turned to face him, eyes wide, and Toby quickly exited all of the windows on Spencer's laptop and shut it down. Caleb placed everything he had taken out of her closet into it haphazardly, but before he could go over to turn off Spencer's light he heard a voice – a _very_ familiar voice – come from downstairs.

"Spence, why is your light on?" Hanna asked. Caleb turned to glare at Toby.

'I thought you said we wouldn't be caught!' he whispered furiously.

"They were supposed to be at Spencer's lake house, I have no idea what they're doing here!" Toby replied just as quietly, meanwhile thinking about some way they could get out without being caught. Finally, he remembered a big window in the upstairs guest room and signalled to Caleb to follow him. The two began walking down the dark hallway, but they hadn't noticed Spencer slipping quietly up the stairs. Catching sight of the two figures obviously sneaking out of her house, she raised the hockey stick in her hands, but before she could bring it down on the person in front of her, the figure in front of them turned around just in time to see her and ran over to her, grabbing her arm. She let out a scream, and soon the footsteps of the other three girls could be heard on the stairs.

"Spencer!" Aria yelled out, flipping on the light for the upstairs hallway. Once the light came on, Spencer could see Caleb in front of her, his arm lifted to protect him from the blow that could still come from Spencer's hockey stick, and the hold on her from the other figure that she had thought was familiar was, in fact, familiar, as she saw it was Toby preventing her from hitting Caleb. Her eyes widened, and the look in Toby's eyes showed that he knew he was in trouble. A _lot_ of trouble. Toby cautiously released his hold on Spencer and stepped back a little, seeing Aria, Emily and Hanna gather behind Spencer, all wearing similar expressions of confusion, shock, and in Hanna and Spencer's case, fury.

Finally Spencer dropped her hockey stick to the ground. "What THE HELL are you two DOING?" she yelled.

Toby and Caleb exchanged a guilty gaze, and Spencer gasped, realisation coming to her. She turned and ran into her room, and sure enough saw the things Caleb had forgotten to put back, and her laptop was in a different place from where she had left it. She felt anger rising up in her, as well as betrayal, and when Toby came in behind her and put a hand on her shoulder she pushed it off, turning to face him. He mentally kicked himself for thinking that he would get away with this – the look of betrayal and anger in Spencer's eyes wasn't worth it.

"Spencer," he said quietly, aware of Caleb's exclamations of pain as he heard a thudding sound, assuming Hanna was punishing him for being a part of this. Toby wished Spencer would do the same – the silence and cold fury coming from her was so much worse. She closed her eyes.

"What were you looking for?" she asked in a voice that was level enough to scare Toby even more. He sighed, knowing it was now or never to come clean, and he couldn't lie to her anymore.

"Answers. Answers that you won't give me." He took a step towards her, and in response she moved back, crossing her arms defensively across her chest.

"Answers to what!" she exclaimed, raising her voice. "All I've given you for the past week is answers, Toby! What more could you possibly need to know?"

"Like the fact that you know someone else was working with Mona!" Toby knew immediately that he had said something wrong, as he heard gasps and cries of 'What?!' come from behind him, and Spencer's eyes widened. Toby felt confusion for a moment, but then it dawned on him.

"This person was only sending you messages, so you didn't think it was important to tell the others." Spencer opened her mouth to protest, but before she could Hanna stepped forward.

"What the hell, Spencer?" she demanded, standing right in front of her best friend. "We tell each other EVERYTHING, especially about A! It affects all of us, even if you don't think it does! They're still A messages, which means someone out there is still being A!" Hanna threw her hands in the air. "How could you be so stupid not to tell us, you're supposed to be the smart one!"

The silence coming from Spencer seemed to answer a question for Hanna, and a look of shock came over her face. "You figured out who it is," she murmured, the look on her face clearly showing that she was impressed. "So, who is it?" Aria and Emily had moved forward at this point and stood by Hanna, surrounding Spencer. Caleb moved to stand by Toby who was waiting for an answer expectantly, just as the other three girls were. Toby needed to know who the person was that had worked with Mona as A, but had just terrorised his girlfriend. They were going to pay.

Spencer sighed, rubbing a hand up and down her arm, a nervous habit she had when she was avoiding answering someone's questions – Toby recognised it, he had seen it a lot over the past few months. Realising that everyone was stood around Spencer expectantly like she was giving testimony in court, Toby took a step forward, moving closer until he was right in front of her. He pushed her hair behind her ears, and then brought his hands down to cup her face.

"Spencer, who is it? Tell me, I can help you," he whispered. Spencer remained silent for several moments. Her eyes then filled with tears which would have shocked Toby before, but over the past week he had held Spencer while she cried every night – she had been unable to sleep since Mona was arrested and they had found Maya's body, and after she had called him the first night he had been sneaking in to her room every night to hold her and to be there when the nightmares came.

Just as Toby was about to prompt Spencer once more, she let out a shaky breath.

"Wren. It's Wren. I've had my suspicions for a while, but I went to his resident locker at the hospital yesterday and found his phone – he'd been sending the texts. I was going to tell you guys tonight." Her voice was level, but Toby could see the hurt in her eyes. As much as it killed him to admit it, he knew she trusted Wren, and for him to have done this to her was just furthering her belief that whenever you let someone in and trust them they let you down. However, just as the other girls were reacting to the news and Caleb was asking Hanna desperately who Wren was, Toby's world went red, and all he could see and feel was blind rage for the man who had been threatening the girl he loved. He backed away from Spencer and turned, without a word, going down the stairs. He reached for his keys before he realised that he and Caleb had walked there so as not to draw attention to themselves. He had just reached the front door when Caleb appeared behind him.

"There is nothing you can say right now that's going to stop me," Toby said, surprised by how calm his voice was.

Caleb shook his head, and Toby saw anger in his eyes. "Spencer is Hanna's best friend; even if you weren't my friend and she wasn't your girlfriend, she's still Hanna's best friend. I never got to take it out on Mona, but this bastard is going to pay for the two of them."

Toby and Caleb walked out of the front door, ignoring the cries of protest coming from all four girls who were now running down the stairs. The two picked it up to a run, running over to Toby's house and getting in his truck. They drove to the hospital in silence, knowing they didn't need a plan for what was going to happen – they both knew well enough what would go down once they found Wren. Once they arrived at the hospital, Toby found himself laughing as he realised that having had Wren for a doctor, he knew which floor he worked on most of the time. Once the two reached the floor, the elevator doors opened and Toby clenched his fists. He and Caleb walked out of the elevator, but just as soon as they had turned down a hallway he heard a voice behind him.

"Toby?" It called out in a glaringly obvious British accent. Caleb, who had turned to Toby to ask who the person calling him was, took note of the rage that was coming to the surface and showing through his facial expression, and he assumed that meant this was Wren. Caleb turned around to face the doctor who was now walking towards them.

"Uh, I'm Caleb," he said, trying to keep the anger and disgust out of his voice as he addressed the guy who had been harassing Spencer. "Can we see you somewhere private for a second? We had a question to ask you."

"Sure," Wren replied, oblivious to the look on Toby's face. "I believe there's an empty room up here we can use, follow me."

Wren led the two boys into an empty hospital room, flipping on the light switch. He then drew the blinds on the window facing into the hall shut, and turned to Toby and Caleb.

"What can I do for you?" he asked. Something in his peripheral view caught his eye, however, and he looked down just in time to see Toby flex the fingers in his right fist before clenching them once more. Looking up, alarmed, Wren took a step back.

"Look, mate, whatever's going on I'm sure we can fix." Wren said, panic in his voice.

Toby's eyes darkened, and he took a step towards Wren. "Yeah, we can," he said while aiming a punch at Wren's face.

Spencer and Hanna ran outside, screaming after their boyfriends who were sprinting away from them.

"They're going to Toby's house!" Spencer exclaimed, recognising the direction they had taken. "They must have walked here, they'll be going back to get his truck to drive over to the hospital." Spencer lifted her hands behind her head, eyes wide. "Oh god, this is not going to be good."

She then turned to run back inside, grabbed her keys and slammed the front door shut, motioning for the others to come over to her car. She and Hanna got in the front while Emily and Aria got in the back. The drive to the hospital was faster than it normally was, mainly due to the fact that Spencer ignored practically every stop sign there was, but no one complained about her driving as they normally would have and as they did when Hanna drove – they knew this was a matter of urgency.

"Crap, crap, crap," Spencer muttered when they pulled in to the hospital parking lot, seeing Toby's truck empty in the space next to them. "They're already here!"

The four raced inside the hospital, when they realised they needed to have a plan. Hanna turned to Aria and Emily.

"You two go and find Wren's locker and get the phone," she said, "but make sure you don't touch it! Pick it up with a pair of gloves or something!"

Just before Emily could ask where the hell they were supposed to get gloves from, Aria nudged her, pointing in the direction of a hospital supply closet that was open, with boxes of latex gloves inside. Spencer told them where Wren's locker was and the two raced to the closet, each grabbing a pair of gloves, and then ran in the direction Spencer had sent them to the locker room the resident surgeons shared.

Hanna and Spencer remained by the exit for a few more moments, when suddenly Spencer remembered something.

"He works on the third floor," she exclaimed, running over to the elevator.

"How do you know?" Hanna demanded as they got inside the thankfully empty elevator.

"That's the floor Toby was on, and Wren said he'd be working on there for six months – it was only a few months ago."

Once they arrived at the third floor, the two scanned it but saw no sign of either Toby or Caleb. The nurse's station was, thankfully, vacant, which allowed the two girls to look around without having to give an excuse for their being there. Suddenly, just as Hanna was about to suggest checking another floor, Spencer heard muffled thumps and yells coming from a room behind them. She turned to face it, and seeing the blinds were closed, raced over to it. Wrenching the door open, her eyes widened and she clapped a hand over her mouth in shock, her actions mirrored by Hanna when the other girl came up behind her.

"Oh my god," Spencer whispered, taking in the scene in front of her.

Toby had been in mid-punch when Spencer had opened the door, and in his hands he was grasping Wren's scrub top which was covered in blood, although whose blood it was Spencer couldn't tell. Wren was bleeding from his nose, a split lip and various grazes and cuts on his face, whereas Toby was only bleeding from one of his cheeks where Spencer assumed Wren had gotten one hit in before he had been completely overpowered. Caleb was standing back and nursing a black eye and bleeding nose, which showed that he had participated in the fight as well and had given way for Toby to get ultimate revenge for Spencer. Once Spencer had opened the door Toby had looked up, and seeing Spencer and Hanna standing there he had released Wren from his hold, letting him simply drop to the floor with a dull thud followed by a groan while Hanna pushed Spencer in to the room completely, shutting the door behind them.

Spencer stood in shock for a few moments before Toby approached her slowly, with Caleb moving to stand by Wren to ensure he didn't get up.

"Spencer," he murmured. Spencer shook her head, taking a step back at his approach. Hurt flashed through Toby's eyes and across his face, and Hanna saw this, but then she saw the look of pure shock and devastation on her best friend's face. Turning to open the door, she grabbed one of Spencer's hands and pulled her out. After getting a still shell-shocked Spencer out in to the hallway, Hanna turned back to the two boys.

"We'll make sure no one comes in until you've dealt with him," she said, looking at Caleb and feeling a surge of pride for the way he had stood up for her friend, but also anger at the way he had done it. She then shut the door behind her and looked around for Spencer, who she saw had slid down against the way, her elbows braced on her knees and her head in her hands. Sitting down beside her, Hanna placed an arm around her shoulders, pulling her in. She waited for her friend to speak, knowing she would in a moment.

"I just…" Spencer whispered, trailing off, "I've never seen him like that before. He was so angry, and so…he wasn't Toby. I couldn't see Toby."

Hanna pulled Spencer in for an embrace, holding her until the door behind them opened and Toby came out, pulling a noticeably weaker Wren with him. Caleb followed after him, holding a hand out to either of the girls on the floor and helping them both up. Spencer stepped back while Hanna gently touched the bruising already coming up around Caleb's eye, pulling a tissue out of her pocket to wipe at the blood from his nose. He smirked at her slightly.

"First camping, now applying first aid for someone after a fight? What about your past aren't you telling me, Marin?" he teased. Hanna shoved him lightly, before taking hold of his hand. The two walked over to where Toby was waiting in the elevator, holding the door open, and Spencer followed after them. She knew Toby was watching her but she kept her eyes on the numbers, and as soon as they hit the ground floor she stepped out and immediately into Emily, who grasped her hand. Spencer was slightly confused as she looked up, seeing five or so people waiting around in the lobby. She then saw their matching uniforms and she gasped.

"The police?" she exclaimed.

Emily nodded. "Caleb called us after you found them and told us to call them. Aria gave them the phone, and they have an arrest warrant for Wren."

Spencer felt her knees weaken slightly and she leant back into Emily, prompting Emily to wrap an arm around her friend's slender waist, holding her up.

"It's okay, Spence," Aria whispered from the other side of her, "he's not going to be able to do anything to you anymore."

Before Spencer could say anything, however, as she saw the police leading a now-handcuffed Wren Kingston out to a police car flashing its lights outside of the hospitals doors, she then saw two more people being cuffed, and she pulled herself out of the hold of her friends, running towards the policemen who were handcuffing Toby and Caleb, neither of whom seemed to be too bothered by the situation.

"What're you doing?" she yelled at the policemen, followed closely by Hanna who was yelling the same thing.

Toby and Caleb were pulled out of the doors, but before Hanna or Spencer could make any move to follow them, a policeman stepped in front of them and Spencer recognized it as the one who had restrained Toby earlier that year when it had been her in the police station and he had been screaming that he loved her.

"We're sorry, but your boys assaulted someone, and that means they have to be taken in for questioning." The police officer sounded genuinely apologetic, but that meant nothing to either of the girls who looked on in pure despair as they watched the cars holding their boyfriends drive away. Just before the officer walked away, however, he turned back to them.

"They're only going to be held overnight," he said quietly so that only Hanna and Spencer could hear them. "It's a formality – your friend who called told us what the man did, and after everything you girls have gone through we're not doubting your story – we just have to take the two boys downtown to put them in a cell overnight - you can come pick them up tomorrow morning."

Hanna, who had taken hold of Spencer's hand once the police officer had told them where Toby and Caleb were being taken, finally relaxed her vice-grip on Spencer's fingers, and the two walked back to Aria and Emily who were both wearing matching looks of confusion.

"They had to take them into the station because they assaulted Wren," Hanna explained in an angry voice, "they're holding them overnight but they'll be released in the morning."

Emily looked at Spencer, concerned that she was so quiet. "Spencer?" she asked.

Spencer shook her head, walking outside. Aria, Hanna and Emily looked at each other and quickly followed after their friend who had already gotten into her car.

…

The next morning at 8am Hanna and Spencer were arriving at the Rosewood Police Station. They walked in and Spencer immediately went to the desk in the lobby.

"Excuse me, we're here for Toby Cavanaugh and Caleb Rivers? We were told they would be released this morning?" she said.

The officer behind the desk nodded his head, smiling slightly. "The knights in shining armour? Give me two minutes."

Hanna and Spencer waited for a couple of minutes, sitting on the bench in the lobby, before the officer came back. Following closely behind him were Toby and Caleb, both looking tired and sleep deprived but not much worse after their night in jail. Hanna ran up to meet Caleb immediately, jumping into his arms and wrapping her legs around his waist as he held her. Spencer hung back, however, and Toby approached her cautiously.

"Spence?" he asked quietly, trying not to show the hurt that he was feeling at her distancing in his voice.

She looked up at him, and he saw tears in her eyes. Without saying a word he closing the space between them and pulled her into him, holding her tight. He felt her burying her head in his chest, and he kissed her hair.

"I'm sorry," he whispered, "I just…I couldn't believe he'd do that to you. You trusted him and he hurt you, and I couldn't not do anything about it. It's my job to protect you."

Spencer pulled back, wiping a hand across her eyes. "It's just…you weren't you anymore. I know why you did it, but…I couldn't see _you_."

Toby sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "I couldn't stand the thought of him hurting you. After everything that's happened to you, I couldn't let him get away with that."

Spencer smiled slightly, running her own hand through his tousled hair, the result of spending a night in a jail cell and then traced the bags under his eyes. "Thank you. For defending me."

Toby smirked. "Am I forgiven?"

Spencer laughed. "You may have to do more than apologise, Cavanaugh. After all, you still owe me an apology from breaking in to my house."

Toby pulled Spencer to his, her chest flush against his, and kissed her with as much force as he had kissed her with last time they had been at the police station, when he had finally got her back after Mona was out of her life – out of _their_ life. And in that moment, with Caleb wolf-whistling behind them and Hanna shaking her head with a smile on her face at her best friend, Toby knew everything would be okay.


End file.
